The Altamaha River Bioreserve

This 137-mile alluvial river is one of the great natural treasures of the eastern
United States, flowing undammed from its creation at the confluence of the Oconee
and Ocmulgee rivers near Hazlehurst to the multichannel river delta near Darien.
Crossed by roads only five times, the largely undisturbed river is believed
to be more than 20 million years old, and pumps an average of 100,000 gallons
of fresh water into the sea every second, making it Georgia's mightiest river.
As impressive as the river's volume iscomparable to the Nileeven
more significant are the 170,000 acres of magnificent river swamps that insulate
the river almost the entire length of its course. The river, swamps, and sand
ridges serve as refuge to at least 130 species of rare or endangered plants
and animals, including seven species of freshwater mussels found nowhere else
in the world; Radford dicerandra, a rare species of mint; and the only
known Georgia population of Florida corkwood.

The Altamaha River is popular with naturalists and bird watchers for its flora
and fauna, and with anglers who pursue its abundant game fish. A watercraft
is necessary to experience the Altamaha at its greatest glory. The bird lover
will find waterfowl, wading birds, owls, woodpeckers, raptors, and songbirds
to be common residents and migrants of the river's swamps, bottomland hardwoods,
oxbow lakes, and marshlands. Endangered species such as bald eagles and swallowtail
kites soar above its banks. Reptiles such as alligators and a variety of snakes
and turtles find refuge by the river, as do white-tailed deer, mink, otter,
raccoons, rabbits, opossums, and armadillos. Endangered West Indian manatees
have been seen swimming as far upsteam as Fort Barrington, and shortnosed sturgeon
use the waters as nursery grounds. Botanical oddities attract naturalists, who
know the legend of the Franklinia alatamaha, a flowering tree that was
identified and collected near the river by eighteenth century naturalist William
Bartram and never seen again (see Fort
Barrington/Barrington Park). Some believe the tree may still survive somewhere
in the wild near the river. Not only does the river possibly hide the world's
rarest tree, it likely has the oldest trees this side of the Mississippi River.
On Lewis Island, a 300-acre tract of virgin cypress contains ancient giants,
including one that is believed to be 1,300 years old. Depending on their location
on the river, fishermen try their skills for catfish, sunfish, crappie, bluegill,
and bass upstream, and shad, mullet, striped bass, tarpon, and shark downstream
(see Two-Way
Fish Camp).

This river and its swamps are more important than just the variety of species
found in them. They play a vital role in supporting the rich estuary located
downstream. During times of low water, the river swamps accumulate organic matter
in the form of leaves, twigs, and other detritus. During spring floods, high
water picks up detritus and other small
creatures in the woods and washes them into the main river, which carries
this "natural fertilizer" downstream. The nutrients are trapped and
used in the marsh, a belt of salt-tolerant grasses in a band 4 to 6 miles wide
between Georgia's mainland and barrier islands. The marsh grasses incorporate
the natural fertilizer into their stems and roots, and as the grass dies and
disintegrates, it is consumed by decomposers of the estuary such as bacteria
and fungi, which help phytoplankton and benthic algae. These are in turn eaten
by primary consumers such copepods, mud worms and snails, shrimp, crabs, and
oysters, which in turn support secondary and tertiary consumers including fish,
birds, and mammals. The marshes release their nutrients gradually, creating
one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. Without these marshes, the
nutrients would be washed out to sea in one big pulse each year.

The big river also carries a tremendous sediment load, adding additional nutrients
to the mix in river swamp and estuarine ecosystems and creating barrier islands.
Without the river, it is believed, there would be no St. Simons Island. Little
St. Simons Island continues to grow at a tremendous rate from sand washed down
the Altamaha River.

The 14,500-square-mile Altamaha River basin is the second-largest watershed
on the Eastern seaboard. The watershed drains more than a quarter of the state,
with its northernmost headwaters in the Piedmont province 10 miles northeast
of Gainesville in Hall County, Georgia. Small creeks run off the Chattahoochee
Ridge, a spinelike geological feature that runs northeast to southwest and forces
water westward and the Chattahoochee River and the Gulf of Mexico or to the
east and the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers, which meet near Hazlehurst to form
the Altamaha. The river at Doctortown Landing near Jesup is a broad, meandering
stream, surrounded by cypress, gum, and willow swamps. Set back up to 2 miles
from the main channel are ancient bends of the river, isolated by time into
curved, oxbow lakes with names like Whaley, Morgan, and Johnson, which serve
as important spawning grounds for fish and freshwater sources for reptiles and
birds. (The world's record largemouth bass was caught in an oxbow lake of the
Ocmulgee River in Telfair County, part of the Altamaha River basin.) As the
river's wanderings cut into the sand ridges that parallel the river, the higher
and drier woodlands support bay trees and magnificent moss-draped oaks. Pine
plantations, managed by pulp and paper companies, are planted adjacent to the
river swamps.

Below Lewis Island, the river forks into different winding channels, and the
river becomes affected by the twice-daily tides. The vegetation on the riverbanks
changes into grasses and reeds, and behind these banks are the remnants of antebellum
rice plantations, such as Butler and Hofwyl-Broadfield. Butler Island Plantation
is where Fanny Kemble Butler wrote the powerful abolitionist book Journal
of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation that was influential in keeping
England from entering the Civil War in support of Confederates. Today, Butler
Island is the Altamaha Waterfowl Management Area and
Hofwyl-Broadfield
is a state historic site. The river meets the sea in four channels, from
north to south: the Darien, Butler, Champney, and South Altamaha rivers.

The name Altamaha, pronounced All´-ta-mahaw´, is from an immigrant
Yamassee Indian group descended from an interior chiefdom originally known as
Altamaha or Tama, located on the Oconee River just below Milledgeville, visited
by Hernando de Soto in 1540. The Altamaha chiefdom was forced into slavery,
but rebelled and eventually settled in St. Augustine until it evacuated with
the Spanish to Cuba in 1763. The Spanish referred to it during the 1600s as
Rio de Santa Isabel, referring to an early mission called Santa Isabel
de Utinahica, established in the Timucuan chiefdom of Utinahica located
at the forks of the river near present-day Lumber City. The ruins of more than
1,000 Indian sites along the river are evidence of how important the river was
to Indians, who relied on it for food and transportation.

The river has seen not only the dugout canoe, but also Spanish galleons, huge
rafts of cotton and timber, and paddlewheel steamboats. Today, most watercraft
are motor-powered bass boats that belong to sport fishermen. Hernando De Soto
wrote about the river in 1539, and so did early naturalists who were fascinated
by the New World flora and fauna found at "Georgia's Little Amazon."
Fort Barrington witnessed military activity during the American Revolution,
the War of 1812, and the Civil War. At Morgan's Lake, the Blue and the Gray
faced off in a minor historic episode of Sherman's March to the Sea during the
Civil War.

Protecting the river and its swamps, from The Forks to the place where the river
meets the sea, has been a goal of many organizations since the late 1960s. Today
most of the river is under some form of legal protection in a patchwork of various
tracts. In 1969, Wolf and Egg islands at the mouth of the river became a national
wildlife refuge. In 1972, the state acquired the 6,177-acre Big Hammock Natural
Area and the 5,633-acre Lewis Island Natural Area. Big Hammock, located on the
northern bank of the Altamaha near Glennville, consists mainly of bottomland
hardwoods and sloughs, and an 800-acre sandhill community that supports the
largest population of the Georgia plume (Elliottia racemosa). Lewis Island
Natural Area contains virgin cypress tidewater forest, with Georgia's oldest
trees. In 1974, the 1,268-acre tidewater rice plantation Hofwyl-Broadfield was
preserved, and in 1978, the 1,331-acre Altamaha River Natural Area was created
when ITT-Rayonier donated the tract to the State of Georgia, which includes
a border of land extending 300 feet from the riverbanks in Long, Wayne, and
McIntosh counties. Other protected tracts near Darien include the 752-acre Cathead
Creek Preserve; the 6,259-acre Buffalo Swamp; and the 27,078-acre Altamaha Wildlife
Management Area (or the Altamaha River Waterfowl Area), which includes Lewis,
Cambers, Wrights, Butler, Champney, Broughton, Rhetts, Rockdedundy, and Dolbow
islands; and the 15,526-acre Sansavilla Wildlife Management Area.

Fort Barrington and Barrington County Park

[Fig. 3(4)] Barrington
County Park provides access to the river and a beautiful setting for picnicking,
camping, or fishing on the Altamaha River near a historic colonial fort. Fort
Barrington was built on a sand ridge in McIntosh County to control the best
place to cross the broad Altamaha River in its southern section, a shallow ford
north of where the river divides into four channels. In pre-Columbian times,
Indians crossed the river here on their ancient overland trail between Savannah
and St. Augustine, which in 1736 became Gen. James Oglethorpe's Post Road, traveled
by Methodist minister John Wesley and Scottish Highlanders in their march on
Fort Frederica.

The natural settings are a mix of sand ridges, river swamp, bay forest, and
pine flatwoods. The sand hills are composed of nutrient- and moisture-poor soils,
which support hardy flora such as turkey oak and longleaf pine, along with post
and bluejack oaks and mockernut hickory. On lower areas southwest of the road
are baldcypress and tupelo. On drier floodlands are bay forests consisting of
sweetbay magnolia, loblolly bay, and red bay, and at higher elevations are pines
such as slash and loblolly. Deer and feral hogs are common game animals seen
near the property.

Near here on October 1, 1765, naturalists John and William
Bartram found the legendary Franklinia alatamaha, a beautiful, 15-foot
flowering tree that is a kind of holy grail for botanists. The Bartrams, thankfully,
collected seeds from the unusual plant that was later successfully propagated.
Today, all living Franklinias are descended from these seeds, and the
plant is believed to be extinct in the wild. Eight years later, William Bartram
returned without his father and rediscovered the plant, this time in bloom,
and wrote about it in The Travels of William Bartram. In the Naturalist's
Edition of Bartram's Travels (1958), Francis Harper writes that he believes
the actual location of the tree to be on "a sand-hill bog on the north
side of the (Fort Barrington) road at a point about 1.7 miles northwest of Cox."

The colonists of Darien worried about being attacked from the rear by the Spanish,
French, and hostile Indians. In 1761, a square structure with 75-foot-long walls
was built to stand guard at the river crossing. Called Fort Barrington in honor
of a friend of Oglethorpe's, it was garrisoned by 25 rangers. During Revolutionary
times, it was called Fort Howe. The fort was abandoned after being garrisoned
during the Civil War. A ferry operated here from colonial times until the early
1900s, when railroads, roads, and bridges put it out of service.

Today, time has claimed the wooden fort, and the river has eroded half the earthworks.
A hunting club owns the remaining earthworks, and unfortunately a private boat
ramp runs down the middle of the fort. Nearby, Barrington County Park is open
to the general public for boat launches, tent or RV camping, or a quiet picnic.
Bathrooms and trash cans are found at the site.

Directions: From I-95, take Exit 10/49 (Darien). Turn right onto
GA 251. Go 2.9 miles and turn left toward Cox at the fork, leaving GA 251.
Proceed 5.7 miles, cross over former railroad tracks (sign on right) and turn
left onto the first dirt road. Go 2.9 miles to fork in the road. Go left to
Barrington County Park, or go right to former Fort Barrington site. CAUTION:
The historic fort is on private property that is popular with hunters. Please
respect their property rights and avoid the area during hunting season.

Canoeing the Altamaha River

Canoeing the Altamaha River, in the main channel, is not the most intimate experience
found on Georgia's smaller rivers, neither is it the most exciting whitewater
trip. However, the Altamaha is the largest virtually unspoiled river in the
Southeast, with beautiful river swamps bordering it along its entire length.
In higher waters, canoeists can thread into river swamps for a true wilderness
experience, and its upper reaches provide unforgettable canoe camping on its
sandy banks.

Caution is urged. Access to the river is limited. If one got in trouble, it
would be a difficult feat indeed to try to walk out through (for example) Penholoway
Swamp with a broken arm. So the key here is planning. Visit your takeout site
so you have a better chance of recognizing it from the water. The river swamps
and multiple channels of the river can get confusing in a hurry so take good
maps and know how to use your compass. Learn the landmarks or signs that mark
your journey. In the lower reaches, the river widens to 1,200 feet in some places
and the canoeist faces twice-daily tides and confusing marsh deltas. Strong
currents and unexpected bad weather here can swamp your canoe in a hurry and
wash you out to sea with the outgoing tides. Be very careful so your trip is
a safe one.

Long Day Trips or Easy Overnight Trips

Doctortown to Paradise Park, 19.6 miles. This trip takes the canoeist through
The Narrows, perhaps the most scenic section of the entire river. Doctortown
is located on the western bank of Wayne County near Jesup where US 301 crosses
the river below river mile marker 65. Signs on US 301 direct you to the site.
Paradise Park is accessed on the western side of the river, where Penholoway
River enters the Altamaha after mile marker 46. The park is 1 mile upstream
on the Penholoway, and is reached with care from Gardi by traveling east on
River Road roughly 5 miles, then left for 1 mile to Paradise Park.

Paradise Park to Altamaha Park, 17.2 miles. This stretch of the trip takes the
canoeist past Barrington Park on the eastern bank of the river (a good place
to camp if you are looking for company) and into tidally influenced waters,
finishing at Altamaha Park on the western bank. Altamaha Regional Park is located
on Altamaha Park Road east of Everett on US 341 in Glynn County. Here, boats
and campsites can be rented (see camping
in Glynn County). (912) 264-(912) 2342. Birders may want to turn right onto
Pennick Road from Altamaha Park Road to visit the Atkinson Tract, which is a
cut-over, swampy area that parallels the river. Here near Cowpen and Clayhole
swamps, you may see nesting indigo and painted buntings, vireos, hooded warblers,
summer tanagers, and yellow-breasted chats. See Fort Barrington/Barrington
County Park for directions to Barrington Park.

Altamaha Park to Darien City Dock, 13.7 miles. This last trip should be undertaken
only with knowledge of current landmarks and daily tides. The canoeist travels
10.5 miles on the Altamaha River, taking the northern (left) channel, then negotiates
narrow Rifle Cut 1.5 miles to Darien Creek for 1 mile. Then take the Darien
River to the boat ramp for 0.7 mile. Lewis Island is a 2-mile detour on this
trip by the way of Buzzard Creek. This adventure should not be undertaken without
consulting local authorities concerning landmarks or blazes that mark the way
to the ancient trees. Recall that the trees still remain because they were so
hard to get to in the first place.

Altamaha Wildlife Management/Altamaha River Waterfowl
Area

[Fig. 16] The 27,078-acre Altamaha
Wildlife Management Area/Altamaha River Waterfowl Area (ARWA) is the second
largest waterfowl area east of the Mississippi (the largest being the Chesapeake),
and is visited by more than 30,000 ducks from mid-October through mid-April.
A stop on the Colonial Coast Birding Trail, the area is equally popular with
naturalists, bird watchers, duck hunters, and fishermen.

The ARWA consists of several "islands" that are created by the Altamaha's
meandering channels: Lewis, Cambers, Wrights, Butler, Champney, Broughton, Rhetts,
Rockdedundy, and Dolbow islands. Lewis Island is a naturalist's wonderland,
containing virgin cypress stands over 1,000 years old. Most of the other islands
are dominated by a variety of marsh grasses that have flourished since antebellum
times, when hundreds of slaves cleared the land of timber, dug canals, and built
water-control dikes that were used to establish successful rice plantations.

Some of these canal-crossed islands, such as Butler and Champney, are former
sites of plantations that today are important nesting and refuge sites managed
for migratory waterfowl. Freshwater plants such as giant cutgrass, pickerelweed,
wild rice, cattails, widgeon grass, and wild millet help support the duck population.
Many species use the freshwater sites, including mallards, scaup, ring-necks,
black ducks, pintails, canvasbacks, buffleheads, gadwalls, scaup, widgeons,
mergansers, shovelers, green-winged teals, and occasionally the fulvous tree
duck. A large population of snipe is found in January and February, and rails
are also common in the marshes.

Mammals observed in the wildlife management area include deer, red and gray
foxes, beavers, cottontail and marsh rabbits, feral hogs, otters, bobcats, minks,
opossums, armadillos, raccoons, bats, and mice. In the tidal waters are dolphin
and an occasional manatee. More than 26 species of snake have been reported
here, including coral snakes, cottonmouths, copperheads, and pigmy and diamondback
rattlesnakes.

Directions: Part of the Altamaha Waterfowl Management Area is easily
accessed by car on US 17 between Darien and Brunswick. The headquarters is
located on Butler Island and is not open to the general public, but south
of Butler Island is Champney Island, site of the Ansley-Hodges Memorial Marsh
Project, which has an observation tower and marked trail.

Lewis
Island Natural Area

[Fig. 16(1)] Without sandy beaches
and high-rise condominiums, this is not what people generally imagine when you
say "island." But Lewis Island, located five miles up the Altamaha
River, is accessible only by boat and is a natural treasure that has fascinated
scientists and naturalists alike. The 8-mile-long island contains a remnant
of the great hardwood forests that bordered Georgia's Coastal Plain rivers,
including the largest known grove of virgin tidewater cypress and tupelo gum
trees in Georgia. One 300-acre stand of baldcypress has trees 6 to 7 feet in
diameter, which are estimated to be 1,000 years old, with one tree believed
to be over 1,300 years old.

The primitive island is defined on the west by the main channel of the Altamaha
River and on the east by Lewis Creek and the broad, dense Buffalo Swamp. Loggers
attempted to get to the trees, but thankfully logging cables were not long enough
to reach them and today never will because the tract was purchased from the
Georgia-Pacific Corporation by the State of Georgia in 1973 to be protected
as part of the Altamaha State Wildlife Management Area.

The 5,633-acre natural area is home to deer, otters, raccoons, feral pigs, and
gray squirrels. Swallow-tailed kites nest here, and also observed on the island
are Mississippi kites, parula warblers, yellow-crowned night herons, green herons,
Louisiana herons, pileated woodpeckers, egrets, ibis, and wrens. Snail-loving
limkins have occasionally been seen near the island. Common reptiles are alligators,
Florida cooters, yellow-bellied turtles, as well as rainbow, mud, cottonmouth,
yellow rat, and red-bellied water snakes. Near the water's edge, streamside
flowers such as the pink-flowered Physostegia are common, along with
wild potato vine, spider lilies, and swamp mallow.

An interesting characteristic of Lewis Island is that it is a tidewater swamp,
which means it has adapted to daily fluctuations in water levels and current
flow, unlike river swamps that are affected mainly by seasonal fluctuations
in water levels.

The island must be approached by boat. The floor of Lewis Island may be under
water from January to June, when the river leaves its banks, submerging a half-mile
trail leading to the big trees. When the river is down the rest of the year,
the trail reappears, but be sure to take shoes that can get wet and muddy. The
trailhead is located approximately 0.25 mile southeast of the intersection of
Studhorse Creek and Pico Creek. The Department of Natural Resources attempts
to keep the trail marked, but floods may remove or hide the blazes, so its best
to ask for directions and river conditions at the area's headquarters on Butler
Island.

Directions: Access is difficult to Lewis Island, located 5 miles
upstream from Darien. A boat is mandatory and an experienced guide is recommended
for attempting the trip. Contact Two-Way Fish Camp for wildlife charters,
phone (912) 265-0410; or outfitters that offer guided wildlife tours, such
as Southeast Adventure Outfitters, phone (912) 638-6732, or Altamaha Wilderness
Outfitter, phone (912) 437-6010. For directions and local conditions, contact
the area manager's office on Butler Island, phone (912) 262-3173.

[Fig. 16(2)] Butler Island and
its southern neighbor Champney Island are readily accessible to the visitor
without a boat and are good sites for bird-watching during waterfowl migrations.
On Butler Island, the house and grounds are used as a private staff residence
for the Altamaha Waterfowl Management Area and are not open for public tours.
Tourists can view the property from US 17. An observation tower and marked trail
on Champney Island provide easy access for wildlife viewing of the flat, marshy
terrain. During the winter, the quiet observer may identify some of the refuge's
known 18 species of ducks, including nesting wood ducks, and at other times
discover numerous wading birds, including a variety of herons and egrets. Swallowtail
kites and bald eagles are known to nest near the area, and alligators and a
variety of snakes are common.

While migratory waterfowl benefit and depend on the flooded fields for food
and rest, the islands did not always look like this. Butler Island was the site
of one of the largest, most successful antebellum tidewater plantations in America.
With the help of hundreds of slaves, Irish-born Major Pierce Butler created
a grand rice and sugar plantation out of the cypress-and-marsh wilderness in
the early 1800s.

The tidewater ecosystem was very suited to the production of rice. The high
range of the twice-daily tides made it possible to flood the fields; the plantations'
distance from the sea and volume of fresh water from the river protected crops
from salt water; the rich alluvial soils deposited over thousands of years in
the river delta were fertile for growing crops; and the availability of slave
labor made the back-breaking work economical. The clay soils of the Altamaha
delta are the richest in McIntosh County, according to soil surveys.

Today, the only signs of the enterprise are a 75-foot brick chimney that was
a steam powered rice mill built in 1850 and the still-operational dike system,
designed by engineers from Holland. Located on the property is the two-story
home of Col. T.L. Huston, a half-owner of the New York Yankees, who had a Guernsey
dairy farm and a successful truck farming operation that shipped iceberg lettuce
grown in the restored fields. The residence was built in 1927. In the 1920s,
many baseball players visited Huston, including Babe Ruth.

Butler arrived in the American colonies in 1771 as an officer in the British
Army. Excited by the opportunities in the New World, Butler resigned from the
Army, married an American woman who was a daughter of a rich Charleston plantation
family, and started a long, successful career as a planter and politician. Butler
was an ardent pro-slavery advocate, defending the peculiar institution at the
Constitutional Convention of 1787, and helping to draft the fugitive slave law
and the Three-Fifths Rule whereby a black slave was considered to be only three-fifths
a person. Butler was a friend of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr.
(Burr sought asylum at Butler's plantations after he killed Alexander Hamilton
in a duel in 1804.) Butler was chosen by the South Carolina legislature to be
the state's first U.S. senator.

Eventually, Butler obtained the 1,500-acre tidewater island that he named for
himself, as well as property on the northwest end of St. Simons. Butler Island
became a rice plantation and Hampton Plantation grew sea island cotton. Butler
was an absentee owner, spending most of his time away on business in Charleston
or Philadelphia, so he depended on his plantation manager and slave overseer
Roswell King Sr. to keep the plantations operating successfully. Friction between
Butler and King resulted in King being relieved of his duties after 18 years
working the plantations. Connecticut-born Roswell King Sr., who was known for
his cruelty to slaves, moved to an area north of Atlanta in 1837 where he established
Roswell Manufacturing Company. (King died in 1844, and the town was eventually
incorporated as Roswell in 1854.) Butler died in 1822, and the property eventually
passed down to his grandsons after they agreed to the will's stipulation that
they use their grandfather's last name.

In 1834, Pierce Butler II married the celebrated English actress Frances (Fanny)
Anne Kemble, and had two children, Sarah and Frances. In 18381839, he
brought his wife to his grandfather's plantations. During this period, Fanny
Kemble wrote letters to a friend about her shock and disgust at the treatment
and conditions of the plantations' slaves, which by then were under the control
of Roswell King Jr. She never sent the letters, and left Butler in 1845 and
returned to England. In 1848, Butler filed for divorce and the following year,
in a sensational court case, a Pennsylvania court awarded the divorce and custody
of both girls to Butler.

Though pressured by abolitionist friends to publish her journal, Kemble held
off until her children had grown up and the Civil War had started. Her writings
were published in 1863 under the title of Journal of a Residence on a Georgian
Plantation in 1838-39 and have become one of the most famous antislavery
treatises ever written. The descriptions of plantation life, slavery, Darien,
and flora and fauna of the area make the well-written book fascinating reading.
For example, we learn from Kemble that slaves were kept in four settlements
on Butler Island, "consisting of from ten to twenty houses [the slave]
cabins consist of one room about 12 feet by 15 [where] two families (sometimes
eight and ten in number) reside "

During the Civil War, the property was abandoned. In 1866, Fanny's daughter
Frances returned with her father in an attempt to restore the plantation's former
glory. Frances, who adopted her father's proslavery views, also kept a diary,
published in 1883, titled Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation, considered
the best account of what it was like in Georgia during Reconstruction. Until
the end, Frances remained loyal to her father, never doubting that blacks fared
better under slavery than freedom, and she argues for the institution in her
book. However, without slavery and in the postwar depression in the South, rice
and cotton plantations were doomed, and the fifth generation of Butlers sold
the remains of their lands in 1923.

Champney Island, also the site of a rice plantation, is today a 34-acre Ansley-Hodges
Memorial MARSH Project built in 1989 and sponsored by Ducks Unlimited. An excellent
observation tower a short walk away from the parking area gives bird watchers
a perch to view waterfowl and wading birds in the freshwater marsh, including
great and snowy egrets, least and American bitterns, and in the spring, black-necked
stilts. Common migrating songbirds in the fall include the common yellowthroat,
indigo bunting, and swamp sparrow. A 1-mile nature trail, with marked sites
and brochures, explains the workings of the managed ecosystem. The road follows
the perimeter of the island, looping up to Interstate 95 and back to US 17.
Driving slowly on this road, or parking for short excursions, can be rewarding.
Remember to bring your binoculars, bird book, and insect repellant for the most
enjoyable visit.

Directions: The waterfowl area extends along US 17 from south of
the Darien River Bridge to north of the South Altamaha River Bridge. Champney
Island Interpretive Trail is on the right as you head south on US 17 after
crossing the Champney River.

Dates: Open year-round. Hikers and hunters should be aware that
duck, deer, dove, and furbearers are hunted on the Altamaha Wildlife Management
Area. The Waterfowl Management Area offers the best duck hunting in the state.
Contact Wildlife Resources Division for more information about hunting seasons
and regulations.

Wolf
Island National Wildlife Refuge

[Fig. 16(7)] This three-island
wildlife refuge in the mouth of the Altamaha River consists mainly of salt marsh
and provides critical sanctuary for rare migrating birds. Bird-watching from
the water and saltwater activities (fishing, crabbing, and shrimping) are permitted
within the boundaries of the refuge, but access to the beach and upland areas
is strictly prohibited. Unlike many national wildlife refuges, no hunting is
permitted on the island.

Wolf Island, the largest island in the refuge, is defined by South River to
the north, Little Mud River to the west, Altamaha Sound to the south, and the
Atlantic Ocean to the east. The island consists of 4,519 acres, with only 300
acres of dune and beach along its narrow, 4-mile-long eastern shoreline. The
island fronts the sea in the Altamaha River delta, and is a physical barrier
between Doboy Sound to the north and Altamaha Sound to the south. The interior
of the Holocene island, which is 97 percent Spartina alterniflora, is
divided by many tidal creeks, including Wolf, Beacon, and Beach, where fishing
is reputably excellent. Needlegrass, sea oxeye, and glasswort are also found
in higher places in the marsh along with some small shrub hammocks, and salt
flats cover the central marsh. Sea oats, sandspurs, smilax, and other beach-dune
perennials flourish on Wolf Island's beach dunes, and higher ground supports
scrub southern red cedar and wax myrtle.

The undisturbed island provides a haven for migratory birds. Thousands of birds
use the island in fall and spring migrations, including royal, Caspian, and
Forster's common terns; semi-palmated and black-bellied plovers; least sandpipers,
dunlins, sanderlings, and ruddy turnstones; and a variety of gulls. Black skimmers,
oystercatchers, great blue herons, brown pelicans, and common egrets use the
island year-round, as do clapper rails that nest in the marsh. Waterfowl are
less frequent, but mergansers, scaups, and buffleheads are seen in the salt
water bordering the island. The island also is an important nesting ground for
endangered loggerhead sea turtles.

Tucked into the mouth of Altamaha Sound directly south of Wolf Island are Egg
and Little Egg islands, the two other islands in the refuge. They comprise 593
and 14 acres, respectively, and support extensive salt marsh with only 70 acres
of upland. Egg Island has some oak and pine trees and is used by migratory birds,
and Little Egg Island has shielded colonies of royal terns, black skimmers,
and laughing gulls. Nearby, Egg Island Bar, closed by the state to human use,
supports the largest nesting colony of royal terns on the Atlantic coast, with
more than 9,000 pairs. It serves as a rare nesting ground for black skimmers,
gull-billed terns, and brown pelicans as well.

Wolf Island's recorded history is short compared with its larger island neighbors.
The first owner was Christopher DeBrake, who was granted 150 acres of the island
(the upland portion) on March 7, 1769 by King George III. Early diaries record
that locals used the island for hunting, and as a temporary quarantine for sailors
sick with yellow fever, as it was "a solitary spot washed by the waves
of the Atlantic and miles from any human habitation."

Its strategic location at the mouth of the Altamaha Sound made the island an
important feature in early navigational charts, and the U.S. Coast Guard erected
a lighthouse at the northern end. In 1819, the Georgia Legislature ceded jurisdiction
of Wolf Island to the United States for the purpose of building a 55-foot high
beacon light to complement the lighthouse across Doboy Sound on Sapelo Island.
The structure was built, along with a keeper's house, and was in operation by
summer 1822. The beacon light was pounded by periodic hurricanes and blown up
during the Civil War by Confederates who didn't want the light to aid the Union
Navy. After the Civil War, a larger, grander structure was built on top of 11,
12-inch pilings driven to a depth of 28 feet. These pilings from 1868 can still
be seen in the breakers near Wolf Island, evidence of how much the island has
changed in the last 130 years. The beacon light was 38 feet tall, with a sixth
order light that could be seen 11.5 miles away. The lighthouse had several keepers
over the years, until the terrible hurricane of 1898, which destroyed the structure
and killed several people on Wolf Island. A clubhouse built by hunters in 1891
on the southern end belonged to the Wolf Island Club. The 1898 hurricane swept
the structure away and killed a female caretaker. An account of the storm in
the Darien Gazette said the Wolf Island light keeper, Mr. James Cromley,
"had a terrible time of it and says that in the future, the high land will
be good enough for him." The light beacon was deactivated and remaining
structures were moved to Sapelo lighthouse.

In 1930, the 538 acres under Federal control on Wolf Island were set aside as
a sanctuary for migratory birds. In 1969, the protection of Wolf, Egg, and Little
Egg islands became the goal of Jane Hurt Yarn, a prominent Atlanta environmentalist
with The Nature Conservancy in the 1970s. She bought an option on Egg Island
in 1969, guaranteeing full payment later. The money was eventually raised, and
combined with other Conservancy property acquisitions on Wolf Island, lead to
the creation of the 5,125-acre Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge in 1972.
Her purchase of Egg Island was one of the first actions taken by environmentalists
to protect the coast.

Directions: Visitors must use a boat to reach the refuge, which
is located 10 miles south of Darien between Doboy and Altamaha sounds. Marinas:
Two-way Fish Camp has gas, hoist, bait and tackle, snacks, charters, and storage.
Phone (912) 264-9723.

Activities: Bird-watching, fishing.

Facilities: None.

Dates: All beach, marsh, and upland areas are closed to the public.
Saltwater areas are open 7 days a week.